Breakthrough price for a 1080p projector. Reasonably high-quality image for 480p and above.

Cons

Falls down a bit on image quality for 480i (standard-definition) television signals.

Bottom Line

The Optoma HD20 brings a new level of affordability to 1080p projectors, with reasonably good image quality for 480p signals and above.

The Optoma HD20 is what you'd have to calland this is no exaggerationa game changer. It's one of the first two 1080p projectors announced for a $1,000 street price as a new product (well...technically, the street price is $999, but we always round them off), and the first one to become available. It brings 1080p projectors to a new level of affordability and breaks an important psychological barrier by hitting, or sneaking in just under, the $1,000 mark. It also happens to project a high-quality image, which doesn't hurt at all.

The HD20, which comes with a standard 1-year warranty, is built around a DLP engine with a native 1080p (1,920 by 1,080) resolution. It weighs only 6.4 pounds and measures 3.8 by 12.8 by 9.2 inches, which makes it small and light enough that you could store it when you're not using it and then bring it out as needed. It's really intended as a home theater projector that you can set up permanently, however, which is how most people will probably use it.

Setup is standard fare. But be sure to have your own cables on hand. Optoma supplies only a composite video cable, which limits you to standard-definition (480i) signals, and will definitely not give you the video quality you had in mind when you decided to buy a 1080p projector. I can understand Optoma not supplying a full set of cables given the HD20's low price, but it would have been nice if the one cable were for HDMI.

Setup and Brightness
The back of the HD20 offers two HDMI ports for video and data signals, an RCA-phono plug jack for composite video, a set of three RCA phono plug jacks for component video, and a DB-15 VGA connector that can connect to a computer and also serves for component video and SCART (also known as a Euro-connector, and used primarily in Europe). In addition, there's a 12V trigger connector that you can use, for example, to lower a retractable screen automatically when you turn on the projector, and then automatically retract the screen when you turn the projector off.

To set up the HD20, simply connect an appropriate cable or cables, then point the projector at your screen and use the manual zoom and focus rings to adjust the image size and focus. You may also want to explore the menu settings and possibly change them. The menus are easy to understand and the layout for the buttons on the remote is reasonably easy to learn. A nice touch is that the buttons are backlit, so you can use the remote easily in the dark.

Optoma rates the HD20 at 1,700 lumens. I measured it at 824 lumens in its bright mode and 608 in its cinema mode. If you're used to the higher brightness ratings of data projectors, that might not sound like a lot, but it's easily bright enough for a home theater projector to cast a reasonably large image. Keep in mind that home theater projectors are meant to be used in a darkened room, and the real danger is having an image that's too bright rather than one that's not bright enough.

Video Test Results
The HD20 handled our suite of video tests reasonably well at most input resolutions, the exception being standard-definition video, aka 480i. On the HQV Benchmark test, which is a measure of how well the projector can handle 480i signals, it scored 73 out of a possible 130. That's not a terrible score, but I've seen home theater projectors score as high as 116.

When watching video using 480i over a composite video connection, I saw some slight posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually) and a slight loss of detail in dark areas. I didn't see any motion artifacts, however, and skin tones were generally good. Depending on how demanding you are, you may or may not consider the HD20 image acceptable with a 480i signal.

Switching to an HDMI connection and 480pthe resolution for standard DVDsimproved the image dramatically. In addition to a somewhat crisper image, the colors were much richer. I didn't see any posterization or other problems, and skin tones looked good.

On the HD HQV Benchmark test, a measure of how well the projector can handle input at 1080i, the HD20 scored 50 out of a possible 100, doing well on the noise reduction, jaggies (Read: edge smoothing), and one of two film resolution loss tests, but badly on the video resolution loss test and the second film resolution loss test. These shortcomings did not translate into obvious problems for watching real video clips at 1080i, although the poor performance on the resolution loss tests suggests the image wasn't as crisp as it could be. I didn't see any problems watching video at 1080p.Next: Connection & Rainbow Effect >

About the Author

M. David Stone is an award-winning freelance writer and computer industry consultant. Although a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a top company in the gaming industry. David is also an expert in imaging technologies (including printers, moni... See Full Bio

Optoma HD20

Optoma HD20

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